5 minute read
The World of SDS
UNITINGTO HELP
FUTURE-READY STUDENTS SHINE
Through six departments, Student Development and Support (SDS) delivers an integrated service to our students. Our work over the last fi ve years has been guided by our clear strategy and informed by the University of the Western Cape’s (UWC) Institutional Operation Plan 2016-2021 – with successful results.
STUDENT DEVELOPMENT AND SUPPORT SHOULD ESSENTIALLY BE EVERYONE’S BUSINESS IN HIGHER EDUCATION. The growth and the increasing demand for this function over the last few decades in the higher education landscape has been propelled by the need in the world for multi-skilled, adaptable, innovative global citizens to tackle the challenges of the 21st Century. As a central institutional function or Division, whether you call it student aff airs, as in the United States, or student development and support, as in Europe, this fi eld in higher education has seen the development of an essential service in the education of students worldwide, including developing countries such as South Africa by dedicated professionals.
At UWC, the work that SDS does is guided by our Vision Statement: “As professional leaders, we aspire to co-create a holistic UWC student experience for critical global citizenship”. Coupled to this is our tagline ‘Creating Your Future’, a call to encourage students to be goal-directed as change agents. This tagline is echoed in the Charter of UWC Graduate Attributes and Goal One of the University’s Institutional Operating Plan 2016-2020, the Holistic Student Experience. It is a strengthsbased approach that keeps in line with the SDS ethos.
Our services are delivered through six departments, namely: Offi ce for Student Development; Campus Health and Wellness; Centre for Student Support Services; Financial Aid; Sport Administration; and Residential Services. Through our departments, we have achieved several goals and gained much recognition over the last fi ve years. This includes being named the Greenest Campus nationally three times; identifi ed as one of the best Career Services three times; launching a Co-curriculum record, the Media Society that had led to the establishment of uDubs Radio; recognised internationally through our UWC Creative Arts Choir through its national and international awards; leading our rugby team to win the Varsity Shield; increasing our mental health services as well as support and advocacy programmes for gender-based violence or gender equity, including a policy on sexual violence.
Typically, student development and support services include but are not limited to most of the co-curricular activities necessary to support and develop students holistically. At UWC, these are considered co-curricular activities, which are programmes and learning experiences that complement the formal teaching and learning of the academic project without earning credit points and which refl ects a range of substantial participation and initiatives of students during their study years. In the context of multi-cultural academic
diversity, stimulated by globalisation, it is necessary for all aspects of university life, student services included, to meet various challenges. Many aspects of student life, on an academic, social or cultural level, become more diffi cult to understand and manage with a population that fi nds itself in a state of continual growth and diversifi cation.
To this eff ect, the creation of effi cient student services that are focused on its necessities, to provide the required support for academic activity and stimulate personal, social, cultural and cognitive development, is needed. Critical global citizenship asks of individuals not so much to neglect notions of belonging and practice to a particular locale, but to extend such affi nities beyond the territorial boundaries of their formal national membership and to think critically and ethically about their local, national and global relationship with those who are diff erent from themselves.
As such, a critical global citizenship approach espouses citizenship that is democratic and ethical, as well as being aimed at achieving social peace and sustainable justice, but which is also aff ected by material conditions of inequality that require political solutions and commitment from individuals, states, non-governmental and civil society organisations. It is our goal at SDS that UWC graduates are not only future-ready but also able to aspire to the ideals of being truly global citizens.
Asiphe Cetywayo
Preparation improves student’s job search
MY JOB INTERVIEW PREPARATION was made a whole lot easier thanks to the Career Xplora Mock Interview tool. With this tool, you have two options. You can either take a pre-structured interview for your specifi c discipline or create your mock interview by selecting questions.
You then record your interview, play it back and request others, or Careers Service, to review it. The questions in the tool are not only career-focused. Some are personal questions such as “describe yourself; what are your short/ long-term goals?” and others are behavioural based such as “describe a situation where you had difficulty in dealing with a team member”. Fortunately, I was asked questions at an actual interview that were similar to those that I selected for my mock interview. The Mock Interview tool was my favourite tool off ered on Career Xplora as I am quite shy and could record myself in my own space. I then reviewed the interview and identifi ed mistakes that could have negatively infl uenced my subsequent interviews.
My mistakes included the number of times I said ‘uhm’, lack of eye contact, poor posture, speaking too fast and facial expressions. These aspects are often overlooked by students when, in fact, it could make or break your chance of landing a job. I received valuable feedback from a staff member of the Careers Service after sharing the recording. The tool is remarkable in that you can record and review it as many times as you like until you feel that you are confi dent enough.
EVADNE ABRAHAMS embodies many qualities of our work with students. She started working as an administrator at the Child Guidance Unit at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) after the June 1976 student protests that catapulted South Africa’s youth struggles into the global spotlight. Abrahams continued working for UWC for a few more decades after that and retired only after 43 years of loyal service.
Abrahams was the architect and head of the Offi ce for Students with Disabilities (OSwD) at the Centre for Student Support Services (CSSS). Her passion and deep regard for students, colleagues and UWC, resourcefulness and her networking skills enabled OSwD to become a benchmark for student services across higher education institutions.
Labels such as “disadvantaged, limited or dependent” were never part of her vocabulary. And Abrahams demanded that students and colleagues fi nd agency within themselves, that principles be upheld and that giving up was not an option. Her ‘can-do-it’ spirit and creative energy rubbed off on all who crossed her path. All the staff at CSSS celebrated her and the privilege of working with a wonderful human being and global citizen.
Evadne Abrahams
